Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Figures and Map vii
4. Tables viii
5. Acknowledgments x
6. Introduction: Facets of the History of Colloquial Chinese as Reflected in the Dialects and in Texts 1
7. I. Chinese Dialects in Texts
8. 1. Does Taiwanese Cantillation Reflect the Sound of the Táng? 13
9. 2. Vernacular Written Cantonese in the Twentieth Century: The Role of Cantonese Opera in Its Growth and Spread 36
10. 3. The Mix of Dialect and Guānhuà Elements in the Wú Folk Songs Collected in Féng Mènglóng’s Shāngē 59
11. 4. Changes in Language Use as Reflected in Shuǐhǔ zhuàn Passages Embedded in the Jīn Píng Méi cíhuà 88
12. 5. Wordplay in Jīn Píng Méi 104
13. 6. Division of Old and New Shànghǎi Dialects: A Comparative Study of Tǔhuà zhǐnán and Hùyǔ zhǐnán 121
14. 7. The Origin and Evolution of the Dialect Word yá 伢 ‘Child’ 137
15. II. Chinese Dialects and Their History
16. 8. The Demarcation of Western Mandarin and the Designation of the Chéngdū Dialect as Its Standard Form in Modern China 151
17. 9. A Question in the Final Systems of Míng-Time Guānhuà 173
18. 10. The Hénán Xìnyáng Dialect of 150 Years Ago: Evidence from Dialect Islands in Jiāngsū, Zhèjiāng, and Ānhuī 179
19. 11. An Exploration of the Nature of Nánjīng Mandarin in the Míng Dynasty 194
20. 12. Language Use in the Chinese Community of Manila in the Seventeenth Century: A Case of Occasional Diglossia? 206
21. 13. Frontier Mandarins and Lán Mào’s Yùnlüè yìtōng in the Míng 220
22. 14. On the Variation of the Rù Tone in the Shānyīn Dialect of Shānxī 248
23. 15. Tonal Features Based on Acoustic Analysis and Historical Development in Mùlěi Mandarin in Xīnjiāng 266
24. Contributors 275
25. Index 279